While the majority of your playthrough focusing on treating random patients, you’ll come across a handful of unique creatures as you move through your shifts. Each of these NPCs has their own mysteries to uncover, quests to complete and secrets to unearth, and as it turns out, they know a bunch more about the monsters skulking around the hospital than they let on. So, to catch you up on what all the hospital’s main players are up to, here’s every character in Animal Hospital and the lore and quests associated with them.
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All Animal Hospital characters and lore
To give you a TLDR breakdown, there are currently four key NPCs in the game. While there are a few extra minor characters, such as the very nonchalant shop nurse, they don’t have any dialogue and just sort of stand there, staring into your soul, so we’re just gonna ignore them for now. However, there’s always a chance they’ll factor more into the plot in future updates. As it currently stands, here are all of the main players:
We’ll dive deeper into each of them below, but if you’re looking for a specific NPC, click their name in the list above to hop straight down to their specific section
Note that we’ll be going into full spoilers below.
Dr Harlow
| Role | Staff |
|---|---|
| Has a quest? | No |
| Appearance | Yellow deer with antlers, a surgical mask, a head mirror, and a doctor’s coat |
The chief doctor at Animal Hospital, Dr Harlow, may seem pretty innocuous at first. Outside of the very suspicious briefcase labelled “top secret” that he lugs around, he’s largely a friendly presence, guiding us through the various mechanics and entities we encounter during our shifts
However, there’s plenty to suggest that Harlow isn’t exactly the upstanding tutorial-dealer that he presents himself as. For one, yeah, that briefcase isn’t exactly subtle, and the fishiness is doubled down upon during Ratthew’s third exchange with the player, where he reveals that “the people with suitcases are hiding secrets.”
But that’s not the only part of Ratthew’s storyline that directly links Harlow to the spooky goings-on of the hospital. Before Ratthew departs the hospital for good, he leaves the player a key with a note reading “took the key from the doc.” This key opens a safe in Room 5. Inside is a picture of Ratthew’s missing sister, Rattina, alongside a note claiming that “the ‘Shadow’ now sees everything.”
Dr Harlow, you scamp! You’ve definitely been up to some shady corpo bio experiments, haven’t you? Or at least, it certainly seems that way. The only other bit of evidence worth mentioning is that, in the Animal Hospital lobby, if you look in the top right-hand window of the hospital, you can see a version of Dr Harlow with sunken eyes staring back at you. This could just be an Anomalous copy of the doc, but who knows? The dude is up to so many shady dealings that I wouldn’t doubt that he’s secretly some kind of haunting, skinwalking ghoul in disguise.
Ratthew
| Role | Patient |
|---|---|
| Has a quest? | Yes |
| Appearance | Small, black rat with buck teeth and whiskers |
While we’re going to offer a summary of Ratthew here, in truth, this little guy is basically the centre of all the biggest lore currently in Animal Hospital. If you want a more thorough deep dive, including theories about Rattina and her disappearance, check out our Ratthew lore explained guide for a thorough discussion
Ratthew is a mysterious and somewhat strange patient who will begin visiting the ward on either Shift 2 or 3. While he’ll be somewhat wary of you at first, offering vague warnings, Ratthew eventually emerges as quite the social butterfly, albeit a social butterfly who has a lot of very cryptic, disturbing ideas to share
He makes it clear early on that something bad is festering in the hospital, claiming he’s learnt all sorts of things by sneaking through vents to spy on people. He also warns us not to trust anyone with a briefcase, alluding to the fact that Dr Harlow and Ron From Accounting are involved in the spooky goings-on
Eventually, he reveals that he’s a wanted man, with Animal Corporation (the shady folks that own the hospital) hunting him down. It all started after his sister, Rattina, joined Animal Corporation. She subsequently went missing and never returned. It seems Ratthew’s investigations have put him directly in the corporation’s sights, but before he flees, he gives us a key to Dr Harlow’s safe. Upon opening it, we find a picture of Rattina, a briefcase, and a note claiming that “the ‘Shadow‘ now sees everything.”
It really doesn’t seem like our new pal Ratthew was losing his marbles. There really is something going on in the hospital, and Rattina’s our key to figuring it out
Ratthew’s Quest: How to get Ratthew’s key
Ratthew’s storyline is tail-ended with a quest. To complete it, you’ll need to finish all of his dialogue exchanges. After the fifth and final one, you’ll get a key. Take the key to Room 5 and break down the poster featuring a cat in a hazmat suit plastered on the back right-hand wall
Behind it, you’ll find a safe. Using the key, you can open the safe up, discovering arguably the biggest lore reveal in the game so far
Ron From Accounting
| Role | Patient |
|---|---|
| Has a quest? | No |
| Appearance | Blue bunny with slicked-back ears, a ginger quiff, glasses and a shirt and tie |
A man so illustrious, his name includes his department, Ron is the biggest blabbermouth in all of Animal Hospital. He’ll rock up, divulge company secrets, make it clear he doesn’t feel comfortable knowing said company secrets, and then immediately get his seventh surgery of the week. I’m starting to believe he’s just opted to be complicit for the healthcare discount
Initially, Ron will tell stories that act as hints for dealing with the various monsters in the ward, but over time, he’ll sandwich tiny lore reveals between his tips that we’re left to interpret. Among his first interactions is the reveal that the hospital is “testing” something. Expanding on that, he’ll claim that Animal Hospital’s patients aren’t sick. They’re “infected,” implying something (or someone) is the cause of the sicknesses we’re curing
Other reveals include the fact that the Animal Corporation revealed in Ratthew’s storyline is hiding logs of what they’re up to and scrapping old files, claiming it’s a “routine cleanup.” He even tells us he’s encountered Ratthew before and that he chewed through experiment reports Ron had to parse. Does that cast some doubt on the trustworthiness of Ratthew, considering he’s destroying evidence? Or was he just peckish? Who knows?
Ron’s storyline ends with him telling us that “the boss” is furious, and he needs treatment before he goes to a meeting with him. We can assume the boss is Dr Harlow, and the reason he needs treatment is that he’s infected with this mysterious sickness too. So what’s infecting people? Is it connected to the experiments going on in Animal Corporation? And why are they running them if it’s causing the population (and their own employees) to get some mysterious illness? Ron never really gives us concrete details, but for now, he really needs to get on Indeed before tentacles sprout from his face.
Barney
| Role | Patient |
|---|---|
| Has a quest? | Yes |
| Appearance | White bunny with a thick handlebar moustache, a flat cap and plaid pants |
Despite all the lore going on in Animal Hospital, you’ll run into someone seemingly completely disconnected from the overall storyline of the Animal Corporation and their evil deeds: Barney. But that’s not to say Barney isn’t also swimming in a sea of evil deeds himself
Initially, Barney seems like your average Joe, and quite ironically, he wants a cup of joe pretty much every single time he visits. By giving Barney coffee, he’ll agree to visit again, letting you know that he won’t forget your kindness. Eventually, Barney will ask for a favour from his favourite free coffee vendor: Look after a super chill, not at all ominous red suitcase with the words “DON’T OPEN” scrawled across it
Agree, and you’ll stash the suitcase beneath the reception counter. On his next visit, he’ll ask you to take a picture of him, revealing his true form as an Anomaly. You’ll then hand it back to him, at which point he’ll thank you and leave
As the visits go on, Barney’s requests will become more ominous, as he asks you for a scalpel before retrieving his suitcase and departing. Finally, he’ll ask you to hide him from the police. When the officer rocks, he’ll tell you he’s looking for a serial killer and show you the Anomaly picture of Barney as a reference. When you turn to look at Barney, he’s transformed into his Anomaly form, wielding a knife. From here, the player can choose to snitch him out or tell the officer they haven’t seen him. Either way, Barney’s storyline will then conclude.
To state the obvious, Barney is a serial killer. Not only that, but an Anomalous serial killer to boot. And I’d presume his lovely suitcase is where he stashes either the remains of his victims or the tools he uses to dispatch them. Gotta be honest, I’m more mad that the dude drank so much of my coffee
And that’s all the characters you’ll currently meet in Animal Hospital. Got some theories about Animal Corporation and the wider lore implications? Stick them in the comments below! In the meantime, we have way more Animal Hospital pages to check out, including a full list of Animal Hospital Anomalies, a full breakdown of Ratthew’s lore, and a guide on getting rid of Ghosts. But if none of those appeal, you can find our full list of Roblox guides here
